MIAMI (CBSMiami) – In a statistical dead heat in the polls with Newt Gingrich as he heads into the Florida primary on January 31st, Mitt Romney made a swing through South Florida on Wednesday to drum up support.

Wednesday afternoon the former Massachusetts governor took take part in a “Meet the Candidates” forum co-sponsored by Miami Dade College and the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich also took part in the forum but since they will be interviewed separately, the event is technically not a debate.

Afterward Romney spoke about Cuba and the U.S. Latin American policy at Miami’s Freedom Tower on Biscayne Boulevard.

Romney started his day in Orlando where he spoke to workers at American Douglas Metals and delivered a rebuttal to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address which aired Tuesday evening.

“There were times when the president said ‘If you send me this legislation, I will sign it’ and I thought well aren’t you the leader of the free world, why don’t you draft some legislation, why don’t you go out and say ‘Here’s what I want’,” said Romney. “Here’s what needs to happen. Come to the White House, let’s sit down, let’s hammer this out together.”

In the latest Quinnipiac University poll of 601 Republicans Romney was favored by 36 percent of those surveyed compared to 4 percent for Gingrich. Santorum was favored by 13 percent of the voters and Ron Paul only by about 10 percent. The poll had a margin of error of four percentage points.